Book Review: ‘Idolfire’ by Grace Curtis

Grace Curtis’s soft, character-driven sci-fi novels ‘Floating Hotel’ and ‘Frontier’ quickly propelled Grace to the status of an auto-preorder author for me so I was so excited to see that her third novel would bring a fantasy novel inspired by Ancient Rome. Her writing style lends so perfectly to slow, journey-led, rambling fantasy that I feel like I don’t come across much anymore. I got exactly that and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One curse. Two destinies. A thousand stolen gods.

Two women embark on an epic journey in this sapphic fantasy with a slow-burn romance inspired by the fall of Rome, from the author of the Frontier and Floating Hotel.

ON ONE SIDE OF THE WORLD, Aleya Ana-Ulai is desperate for a chance. Her family have written her off as a mistake, but she's determined to prove every last one of them wrong.

ON THE OTHER, Kirby of Wall's End is searching for redemption. An ancient curse tore her life apart, but to fix it, she'll have to leave everything behind.

Fate sets them both on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods. Now the gates are closed and the old magic slumbers. Dead - or waiting for a spark to light it anew . . .

‘Idolfire’ is a slower read and I have seen some reviews saying that there was too much travelling and journeying in the novel, but that’s where the adventures and the near misses are, where characters are built and friendships formed, and a world is born.

We travel through so many cities and landscapes in this novel that the country and it’s history rises around us in reverse as we track it’s Roman Empire-like downfall. It’s so rich in detail and depth and I fell in love with Aleya and Kirby very quickly; it felt inevitable. Watching them slowly fall for each other too? Perfection.

‘Idolfire’ is a slow and meandering character study that builds a world and weaves a mythology as they go and I always can’t wait to see what Grace Curtis writes next.

Written by Sophie